UK - our farewell tour

We had a 'window of opportunity' to see a bit of the Cotswold region as we travelled from Wales to London so with just a day and a half available we drove to Stratford Upon Avon. On our way we passed through the village of Hillesley so naturally, had to stop & have a look around, the spelling was close enough for me to think possibly that I had some ancestors who had lived in this village at one time. Unfortunately that was not to be, it was Sunday morning & there was a church service just finishing up as we walked into the graveyard to have a look at some headstones. I spoke with several of the parishoners & the minister but none of them had ever heard of anyone using the village name as their surname, oh well it was worth a try!



View Grant enjoyed during his birthday lunch

It was Grant's 60th birthday so we stopped at a lovely pub high on a hill with magnificent views over Cheltenham to enjoy the Sunday Roast, always been a favourite of Grant's so that was appropriate. Three courses & a couple of ciders later we headed to Stratford Upon Avon arriving in the late afternoon. It was a glorious, balmy evening so we strolled into town (no dinner tonight still too full from lunch) just to get our bearings a little. Luckily Grant has a good sense of direction as I seemed to always be turning the wrong way in this town, is it because there are so many similar buildings?



A lovely example of the buildings in Stratfore Upon Avon

We hadn't expected it but there is a hop on-hop off tour here, the massive number of tourists (500,000 pa) plus the fact that two of the major tourist sites are some distance out of town makes the bus viable during the summer months. We did the full circuit then stayed on the bus to go back to the first out of town venue, Anne Hathaway's cottage, so called because this was her childhood home, she never lived here once she married William Shakespeare. This is a magnificent thatched farmhouse with gardens, arbours, an orchard, a maze & plenty of grasslands for picnicking etc. The structure itself was in excellent condition and although it had been extended by subsequent generations of her family it still had the feel of a family home. There wasn't a square or flat surface in the whole place, every piece of wood was rough hewn or curved & the walls were irregular but it was charming nonetheless.

Anne Hathaway's family home

Back on the bus for the trip to Mary Arden's Farm, this was in a neighbouring village & had been the childhood home of William Shakespeare's mother & the place where his parents had first met. The buildings were again thatched & misshapen, the rooms had low ceilings, the doorways were diabolical but it was wonderful. All the farm out-buildings, including a dovecote, were as they had been 500 years ago, with actors in costume giving talks & demonstrations of farming life to school groups. Pigs, horses, chickens, geese, sheep, goats, cider press driven by a horse, all you would expect to find on a farm in the 1500's.



Farmhouse with its precarious walls, that is the dovecot at the end

While travelling the miles round the countryside the commentary included a bit of filler type information such as:

Doctors in William Shakespeare's day, used to dangle a small frog down your sore throat, the frog secreted a saliva which the patient swallowed (yuk), this is where the saying "having frog in your throat" came from.

Beds in this era were supported by ropes strung across the base. The bed was much more comfortable if these ropes were pulled taut, thus the saying "sleep tight".

The four poster bed was invented because the thatched roofs were unlined and as you slept dead animals (mice & birds), their excrement, dust & general rubbish would fall from the roof, so putting a piece of cloth over the top of the bed on four posts was a logical solution to the problem.

The tradition of the 'June Bride' came about because the first weekend in June was the date, in Elizabethan times, for the 'once a year' bath so at least the bride was clean for the day of her wedding (I guess the same applied to the groom).

Once back in town we went to William Shakespeare's birthplace & family home. This cottage was not thatched, that hasn't been allowed in town since the 1600's to help prevent the spread of fires. It was not white like so many of the others, painting them white with black timbers is a comparatively new decorative addition, mud & wood, that's the correct colour! You are not permitted to take photographs inside any of these Trust properties so sorry you only get to see the outside!

A bite of lunch then a short walk to the Nash House & New Home complex. 'New Home' was the home he & Anne lived in when they moved back to Stratford Upon Avon with the children (3) after becoming rich & famous in London. Unfortunately it was demolished back in the 1700's when the then owner refused to pay taxes on it. They are now doing an archeological dig to find the foundations & any artifacts that may be buried there. The gardens are quite large especially for the times & they are kept beautifully. Nash House is the adjoining property which was there at the time New Home was the family home & it is being used as a museum. There is a very good film introduction that leads you through a bit of history, taking you from room to room with artifacts etc behind glass that light up as the film discusses them until eventually you are lead into the garden area. Outside they had costumed staff giving short recitals of Shakespearean pieces etc.

Nash House & the archeological dig to find the foundations of
Shakespeare's home

Then as we walked back towards our B & B we detoured to Dr Hall's residence. This was the home of Shakespeare's daughter Elizabeth who married Dr Hall. There were many original pieces of furniture in this home.

As we walked & rode through town we saw heaps of fantastic buildings, like the Almshouses which were built by the church to house the deserving poor or elderly. They are still used for that purpose, but I do wonder how they are still standing with those wobbly walls! These were right next door to the school that Shakespeare attended which has of course been extended but the historic section still stands on the street-side.



Another example of the buildings

The next morning we headed off to drive through a section for the Cotswolds, visiting three places that had been recommended:

Morton-in-Marsh, it was market day & the place was 'hoppin'. We had a delicious cream tea at tearooms here.

Some of the beautiful golden limestone buildings in Morton

Stow-on-the-Wold, so busy here we couldn't even get a parking place so the photos are taken from the moving car!



Luckily we were able to drive slowly to get a few snapshots

Bourton-on-the-Water, now this was a picture postcard sort of place with a small stream running through town, bridges galore, quaint pubs, loads of spring flowers, lovely park beside the stream, all the trimmings of a tourist destination including busloads of people!



Just a little snippet of the beautiful homes/pubs etc



Grant crossing one of the numerous bridges over the shallow stream

We returned our hire car to Gatwick Airport then caught the train into London for our short visit, only three nights but long enough to see the main sights. Well, arriving at peak hour wasn't a good idea, talk about sardines on the underground. It was a great relief to get into the open air & after a bit of a search to find our hotel at the new Westfield Plaza which is part of the Olympic Athletes Village area & we had a 'lovely' view of the construction zone from our tenth floor window!



St Paul's Cathedral



Crossing the Tower Bridge on our double decker bus

Off into the city today, the underground was much less busy & we found it quite easy to use, thankfully I had printed up a copy of the underground system before I left home (it was worth carrying that sheet of A4 for five months just to have it available when we needed it). A bus trip round the city was fabulous, the live commentary was really funny & interesting. Although it was a cold day we still sat on the top deck to make the most of the view (what a shame we didn't bring our coats) but a hot chocolate helped us warm up. We walked quite a bit & decided what we wanted to come back to see tomorrow.



Entrance to Westminster Abbey

Proof that I actually rode on the London Eye!

Next day we started with the London Eye, what views, magnificent & we got plenty of classic shots of London. Walking over London Bridge we went to Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, then we continued through the city streets to Buckingham Palace & St James Park. We took the underground to near the Tower Bridge, walked through the streets & along part of the Thames Path, over the Tower Bridge, along the quay in front of the castle then short cut through the streets to the Monument where Grant still had enough leg power left to climb the 311 steps to the top for some panoramic views.



Not all of London is old !



One corner of the Tower of London, the grassed area was the moat but
is now a bowling green used by the Yeomen who protect the Tower

Can you spot me? I am that white dot wearing a black coat
Grant took this shot from the top of the Monument

A quiet day followed, moving ourselves from one hotel to another, this one was at the airport as we had a 6.15am flight to Croatia the next morning!

NSW - North 'n South Wales

Eastbourne is a lovely coastal city & we had a couple of great days with Kathy & Terry who had been kind enough to accumulated a bit of mail for us. We enjoyed a lovely home cooked meal the first evening, such a treat after restaurants & takeaways & a good long chat. The following day after taking care of a few mundane tasks like washing, we walked the foreshore & did a bit of window shopping then went out for dinner at the Yew Tree, a great little pub not far from Kathy & Terry's place. Boy, what a great meal! A big thank you to Kathy & Terry for making us feel so welcome in your home, we thoroughly enjoyed the short time we were able to share with you in Eastbourne.

A section of the lovel floral displays along the esplanade, that is a food
festival going on along the right hand side too.



Looking westward towards Beachy Head

We had promised to make it to the Seend Acoustic Festival that afternoon so left Kathy & Terry about 9:30 & drove across country to Seend, near Bath, we arrived about 1 pm which was pretty good going. The festival had started but we didn't miss too many performances so that was great. The fantastic local artists performed almost non-stop until near midnight so it was a great day, the caterers had lovely food so that gave us the sustinence to keep us going. The festival was organised by our couchsurfing friends Malc & Jen who we had stayed with in the very early days of our journey & it was great to catch up with them again, Malc had found us a bed for the night (thanks Frank & Tessa) which was lovely so after a fantastic day & helping a bit with the cleanup, we fell into bed at 12:30am. Next morning it was back to the venue to help with the last few things then an absolutely delicious lunch at a local pub with Malc & Jen then off to Wales.

Aberystwyth was the destination & fortunately we managed to make it there before dark as the road was winding with magnificent scenery we would have been sorry to miss.

The storm surge may have even crashed over these cars at full tide, they
were covered in sand & salt & sat in puddles of sea water, glad our car
wasn't parked on the seaside

Well, Wales has turned on a really traditional welcome for us, there are gale force winds blowing, the ocean waves are crashing up onto the Promenade at high tide & the temperature has dropped to the mid-teens. We don't care, Aberystwyth is beautiful anyway! It is a University town as well as a summer holiday destination so there are plenty of young people, restaurants, touristy facilities etc we really like it here.



Battling to stay upright on the 'castle ruins' headland park



The view from the cliff top back over Aberystwyth

We took the furnicular railway to the top of the cliff & then walked through the countryside, passed the golf course & back into town. Must say it was hard to stand up at the top of the sea cliffs. There were plenty of ripe blackberries so we were able to eat as we walked which was great.



The section of the walk that followed the golf course

Next day we took a local train journey along the Cambrian Coast from Machynlleth to Pwllheli (try saying those names after a few drinks), anyway it was a wonderful trip that hung off cliff edges, ran along beaches, passed through summer holiday townships with their icecream shops & beachside carnivals, travelled across rickety bridges over estuaries, saw historic castles & WW11 military structures, even went through a couple of tunnels & under an avalanche shelter. When we got to the end of the journey there was just enough time to pick up a bit of lunch to eat as we travelled back. Four hours of very scenic train travel on a Day Tourer discounted ticket for only nine pounds each, bargain! 

View from the train window, we came even closer at times but the photo
 was just ocean so not very interesting

Off the train & on the road again, now heading towards Llangollen (pronounced Langothlan would you believe) where we were booked into a B & B near the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct & the Dee River canal. Llangollen is a delightful town, touristy but so cute, very historic with the canal, horse-drawn barges, restored steam train, more walking paths than you can count & the most delicious welsh cakes for morning tea, an all important thing to have.

 

The Thomas Telford's Aquaduct, part of the canal system



Photo of the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct shadow, it is 116 feet high

Art work inside a 1000 year old church, weird!

We used our National Trust membership to visit Chirk Castle, just fantastic. We toured the castle which was wonderful but when we went to the fortress area there was a man in period dress giving demonstrations & talks with traditional weapons, flails, broadswords, pikes, bow & arrows etc. He had a real passion for the topic & obviously knew a lot of background information so it was fascinating to stand there for well over an hour just listening & handling the items.



Some of the original weaponry on show inside Chirk Castle



Definitely not understated! These ceilings
were amazingly beautiful & intricate

Off on a drive today to Mount Snowdon, it is fine & this may be our only opportunity to see the top which we are told is almost permanently shrouded in cloud. When we got here it was like Pitt Street - literally there were hundreds of people with the same idea as us, the train which runs to the top was fully booked out for the day and there was standing room only at the foot of the mountain.

Snowdonia, while the sun was shining, it didn't last long though

We didn't walk to the top, the big black clouds were developing by this time so we did a bit of a village & lakeside stroll, enjoyed a 'pot of tea for two' & a piece of Bara Brith (type of fruit bread) then moved on the northern coastline & the Conwy Bay (no, that is not a typing error, there is no A in its name). It was a lovely drive, very scenic but the weather had turned blustery & damp by the time we got there.

Conwy Bay

On the way home I dropped Grant off on the canal the other side of town & he walked back to our B & B. It was about 6 miles I guess but he managed it in under an hour (mind you it is a flat walk on the towpath). Canal boat occupants were heard to comment "He is walking faster than we are travelling", they should have tossed him a rope, he could have towed them!!



A section of the towpath walk from Llangollen to our B & B

Off on the road again today stopping off at Hay-on-Wye for a little look around. Toni worked here for several months in the summer of 2010 & we just had to have a squiz. Such a lovely little town, full of book shops for which it is famous, we enjoyed a bit of afternoon tea at The Granary which Toni had recommended, delicious.  

A section of a street in Hay on Wye, every second shop was either
antiques or books

Next stop was back in Seend to visit the wonderful Jen & Malc for a couple of days. Wine & pizza for dinner & a late night of chatting, we're up early but not out of the house until nearly noon for a wander round the cute little village of Bradford-on-Avon where the Kennet Canal meets & passes over the Avon River & the railway line. Lots of lovely shops here including some upmarket charity op shops & plenty of what must be very expensive homes. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at a cafe then it was home for a casual dinner & friends round for a late night of wine & talking.

A tithe barn in Bradford on Avon,
absolutely huge structure with magnificent
timber roof trusses

Malc & Jen planned for us all to go on a nice walk, through the countryside, along the towpath of the canal, then back along the road through a gorgeous village full of thatched homes to the car. The weather was a bit dicey but after some 'umming & ahhing' we decided what the heck, don't let the weather win, we set off anyway. It turned out to be mostly fine & sunny, the forest was full of ripe blackberries which Grant had trouble walking past (nearly made himself sick stuffing them down with a double handed picking style) & we had an absolutely wonderful time. The canal was busy as the summer season is almost over & everyone seems to be trying to squash in just one more trip so we had the opportunity to watch the locks being operated. A bit further along the canal we came to a pumping station & a cute little volunteer run cafe where we had a delicious lunch. Then back on the track for the walk to the village then along the road to the car.



The historic windmill at the start of our walk



The Fab Four - Malc, Jen & us - with narrow canal boats in the background

We nearly made it, before the heavens opened! Thank goodness the fellas had carried a couple of umbrellas for the entire walk, we needed them. We made it back to the car, quite exhilarated really, it had been just lovely, we had enjoyed a really tasty lunch, meet some interesting people along the canals & seen just a small section of the beautiful Wiltshire countryside.

While we were in Seend, we had the opportunity to see a couple of old telephone boxes that had been restored & found new lives as something completely different - one was a free community book exchange & the other had been turned into a community defibrilator, there was a security key pad to access it so I guess you had to be trained before you could actually use it. I doubt things like this would last more than five minutes in Australia without being vandalised but village life here is just so different.

Jen checks out the titles!
Nothing appealled particularly though

Malc & Jen helped us get some of our travel plans organised for October (they found some cheap flights to Croatia & really good value accommodation in London too). We were sad to leave but it had to be done, we had booked a cottage in the hills at the back of Neath in Wales for two weeks. This will give us a chance to rest up a bit as this holidaying gig is tiring but also to travel round the Gower Peninsular which has been recommended to us by several Brits.



Our home away from home

Pushing on we drove to Cilybeybll just north of Neath to our gorgeous converted barn where we had booked two weeks accommodation. Our first day was a lazy one with sleeping late, washing, shopping & a bit more sleeping on the lounge while watching a movie. Heaven! 

Day two we headed off to visit a fire station as well as a couple of waterfalls. It had been raining/drizzling for a couple of days so there was plenty of water over the falls. Aberdulais Falls is a National Trust property which had been a tinplating works which Grant found really interesting. After that we drove to Henrhyd Falls which were supposed to be a veil type fall that you can walk behind.....NO WAY JOSE! The water was rushing over & when Grant made it to the bottom to take photos he was over 100m from the actual falls but was drenched from the spray which formed a mist in the entire valley. The incredible power of water was very visible.

Aberdulais Falls, from the top



Henrhyd Falls, photo taken from the path down to the base of the falls

The peaks of Brecon Beacons called & Grant was keen to walk to the tallest summit in Southern Wales - Pen y Fan. The walk was about 11 kilometres long & included the ridge to two other peaks. I dropped him off at the starting point then went back to Merthyll Tydd to catch a scenic steam train which had lovely views to the peaks Grant was on. I could see that the weather had closed in considerably since I had left him & it wasn't a surprise to find him sitting in the rest area at the end of the walk, wet & shivering. We then went to the township of Brecon for a bite of lunch & a quick visit to the Cathedral then as the weather deteriorated we took the scenic route home.



The final push to get up the path to the top was a killer !

A bit of local knowledge can be very helpful and several people had told us that we should see the Gower Penisnsular so we followed their advice. The Gower was not a long drive so first port of call was Mumbles, birthplace & childhood home of Catherine Zeta-Jones (unfortunately she wasn't walking round the shops while we were there) but it is a great little spot with eleven pubs in the one mile along the beach. Pretty popular for pubcrawls I would think! It was quite touristy as you might expect with icecreameries, beach wear, cafes & souvenier shops galore facing directly onto the beach which was on the opposite side of the road, pretty really if you ignored all the kitsch. We drove round the peninsular on all the narrow roads, definitely a challenge at times but good fun nevertheless. 

The islands at the end of Gower Peninsular, you can walk to these
at low tide

We introduced ourselves to our neighbours in the cottages, Conrad (who had been born & grew up in this area & spoke beautiful Welsh) & Doreen. They kindly invited us to join them on a drive round the countryside & to visit the magnificent Castle Cennen with its sheer cliffs on three sides. We had a lovely day taking roads that only a local knows with the best views. We also detoured to a church with its magnificent fortified tower, to check on work being done on a family gravesite. What a great day we had, it was such a delight to hear Conrad chatting away in Welsh to locals at the pub & waiters at the tea rooms.

 

The castle on top of its rocky outcrop

An early start, especially for a Saturday, up at 6am, out of the house by 7am, drove to Cardiff, found a really good parking spot opposite the central police station. We had hoped to have time for a bit of a look round the centre of the city & to find the fire station before we were due to meet Malc & Jen at 10.30am. We only made it round the shopping mall but nevertheless it seems like a nice city especially with the magnificent castle & gardens at its heart. The Great British Cheese Festival was fabulous, luckily for us we got off to an early start by mid-afternoon there was standing room only in the tents but we were able to wander round trying everthing within reach. OMG there were some absolutely delicious cheeses & more varieties than I have ever seen or even heard of to be honest. Washing that down with a half pint of cider we then headed for the Tastes of Wales tent where they had icecream, wild venison sausages, pates, cheescakes (yum), smoothies, alcohol, chutney & relishes etc etc. We were literally bursting at the seams by the time we finished up. 

After the festival we had arranged to meet Eleanor, the daughter of our friends Terry & Cathy. She lives & works in Cardiff & it was great to talk about the city & our combined travels as Ele has seen plenty of Europe too. We had a drink at a pub then went on for some dinner, which amazingly we fitted in without any trouble at all. Bit of a late night, by the time we got home it was pushing towards midnight, it rained all the way home making it a slowish journey.

The Castle Keep at Cardiff

Inside the cheese tasting tent & it's only 11am

Next day, big sleep in, can you believe it was 9am before we woke up. That was the perfect excuse to have a day round the house, lazing, reading, catching up on a bit on internet surfing & generally doing very little. Grant did however feel a bit energetic mid-afternoon & headed off on a walk round the farm, there is a marked walk & a map was supplied, so with laminated map in hand he headed off on a very pleasant stroll.

Big Day Out, that describes our day to the Pembrokeshire Coast. It is a long drive anyway but the hire car broke down & we spent a couple of hours waiting for AA to come then locating parts & a dealer able to fix it straight away. We did have just enough time to get to St David's & Grant managed to squash in a very quick walk along a section of the Coastal Path. It was a challenging six & a half miles with lots of uphill & down dale involved but it was very beautiful with steep cliffs, seals & dolphins near the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs & lots of caves even a natural bridge. When he got to the car where I was waiting, relaxing in the beautiful warm sunshine (I had actually gone for a stroll around the cliff edge & down to the sandy beach below the car park while I waited), he was a lather of sweat & exhausted. Funny, I thought walking was supposed to be pleasurable! Long drive home & a late dinner before we fell into bed, exhausted again.



Just a small section of this magnificent coastline

The weather was glorious so after doing a few household chores & enjoying our morning tea of Welsh Cakes in the sunshine, we drove into Pontardawe to walk the towpath of the canal which had been used to transport coal from the mines in the valleys down to the port at Swansea. The canal & paths were refurbished in the 80's & it was a leisurely eight kilometre stroll up & back. Managed to get Grant a haircut too which was way overdue I can tell you! 

Up early again today as we decided to give the Pembrokeshire Coast another go, this time hoping not to have car trouble. We drove straight to the coast south of Pembroke, a tiny village called Angle which may not appear on any map you have. There was a section of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path that sounded just perfect for him, 16 km with views of stacks (like the Twelve Apostles but red) & caves & cliffs & the list goes on.

This section of coast was more beach
& less cliffs

I went for a bite of lunch - Fish Chowder with warm crusty bread to be exact - at an historic pub overlooking the old port. After picking him up at Freshwaster Beach West, a lovely broad sandy beach we headed in to Tenby to have a bit of a look round. All these places are just delightful & Tenby was no exception, it still has its sections of its old city walls & if you entered through gateways there were shops & markets inside, so cute. We walked down a few roads & found ourselves at the ocean edge overlooking what seemed like miles of sand. The tides here are really large & the boats were all up, high & dry on the sand waiting for the tide to come in again. Sorry but we don't have any photos of Tenby, we forgot the camera & it was way too far to walk back to get it from the car.

That concluded our stay in our gorgeous stone cottage, so we packed all our gear, which I must say is pretty easy as we are travelling very light these days & headed to Bridgend not far west of Cardiff to go to the Alternative Food Feastival. Stuffed ourselves silly with more wild venison, a bit of cheese, a delicious pancake, tea for two, I had a piece of beetroot chocolate slice (don't screw up your nose it was delicious) & Grant had a rasberry & almond cake. We also bought a homemade raspberry & apple pie to take with us. Lovely way to spend the morning then we drove along the coastal strip stopping at a few places for a look-see. The weather has been just glorious & just about everyone who is not at work is out enjoying it, the carparks are full & there are people on deck chairs on the beaches or in the parks making the most of the unseasonally warm temperatures, even swimming/paddling if you can believe it!

We met Eleanor at her empty Cardiff flat, which she had kindly offered us for a couple of nights & settled in for a quiet evening before another very full day.

Cardiff & the bay taken from the barrage wall

We managed to get off to a reasonably early start today which was good as they predicted a quite warm day. We decided to do a walk round Cardiff Bay first off. We could not have selected a better day to attempt such a long walk, round the western side of the bay, across the barrage (which was built to hold back the falling tide & to prevent the bay from being a mudflat at low tide), back into the city centre to find our car. Amazing how I fitted that all into one sentence because it was a massive walk with lots of great scenery. The days of thinking of Cardiff as an industrial city are well & truely gone, it is such a beautiful place.

Replica Celtic Village, stone or wattle & daub with reciprocal thatched roof

After our walk & with tired legs & aching feet we drove to one of the UK's most popular tourist attractions, The Museum of Welsh Life, commonly referred to as St Fagan's. As has happened a couple of times already, I missed an exit on a huge roundabout with the M4 & had to travel an extra 10 kms, go out the next exit, round that massive roundabout & then go back to the exit I should have taken first time round but not to worry we got there in the end.

Entry is free into all museums in the UK so needless to say there was a huge crowd of families picnicking & making the most of the glorious weather so we had to find a park in the overflow area but it was worth it! The museum is basically a collection of old homes, schools, shops, businesses, farmhouses etc that have been moved from around Wales, fitted out with appropriate furniture, equipment etc & opened for the public to enjoy & learn about life in the past in Wales.

That finishes our time in Wales so now we are off to the Cotswolds for a couple of days, should be very pretty there!!

ITALY - SWITZERLAND - FRANCE - a cross country jaunt!

The ferry was running a bit behind schedule but fortunately we aren't on any real timetable other than being out of the Schengen countries in just one week. It will be a very quick & very mobile visit to Italy.


The fountain at the railway station in central Bari

Bari, pretty city with I think about 160,000 people & plenty of tourists too. It has a lovely long corsico along the sea edge with a wide walkway, rocky outcrops, seating for weary walkers, fisherman, kids playing & a few shady trees a very pleasant place to stroll especially in the afternoon when it is shady. We visited the castle here which was built in the 1100's, naturally it has been altered, added to, rebuilt many times since then but this year it is celebrating 350 years since the last major restructing was done. They had a very interesting DVD that we were able to watch in English about its history & architectural highlights, most of which we were able to visit for ourselves as well. Originally there had been a moat round the land side of it & the other sides were on the water's edge but there must have been plenty of reclamation of the water here as there is now a main highway & a whole international port area between the castle/fortress & the water.

One of the castle's fortified corners &
a section of the long disused moat

We then strolled through the lovely narrow cobblestone laneways of the old town, which was full of hustle & bustle, cars that barely fitted, scooters zipping left & right sometimes with dad & a couple of kids or mum & a week's groceries on them, we even got to the basilica just as a bride & groom where leaving, so confetti, wedding cars, people gathered round, all lovely.

That's Grant in the white shirt, in one of
the narrow laneways of the old town

A bit of lunch then off on a 30 minute train trip south along the coast to..... 

Wonderful 'graffiti art' on the side of the cinema at Polignia de Mare

Polignia de Mare, a very beautiful coastal town. It was siesta time so all the shops were shut but we walked into the old town & to the viewing points where we got a great views of the water & the limestone grottoes (caves) which cut under the structure of the old city centre. We had a lovely pizza & some granita (lemon for me, rockmelon for Grant) at a little restaurant with a view to the sea & a fresh breeze as it was pretty hot.



Limestone grottoes under the old town

When we got to the last viewpoint we could see the small rocky beach & the outcrops where people were diving into the water, swimming to an access section then scrambling up the rocks to do it all again. The beach was full of young people sunning themselves (the oldies are smart enough not to go out into the sun at that time of the day) all with swim shoes on because of the rocky bottom. There were paddle boats, skiboats & a couple of sailing boats tripping round the area, all in all it was a beautiful couple of hours spent there, just as you might expect from Italy, just like in the movies. 

The small rocky beach nestled in the centre of the town, this shot was taken from the viewpoint in the old town

Next move was a 5 hour train trip to Bologna, the map showed that the train line hugged the coast for most of the trip & it was right. In places the track ran almost in the water & at other times there was a beach full of colourful umbrellas & deckchairs, then came changes as we moved a little inland to the farming areas, grapes (wine I think), olives, market gardens of vegetables (some I didn't even recognise), figs, citrus fruits, stone fruits, you name it they grew it - my question was where did they get the water? The soil was as dry as chips & we haven't seen a dam or lake of any description.

A section of one of the arcades which
line the streets in Bologna, marble floor,
wide & airy

Bologna, with only the one afternoon here we checked into our hotel & made a bee-line for the main city square. This was walking distance & we enjoyed the stroll looking at the fantastic shop windows (boy I wish I was a size 10 there were so many absolutely gorgeous clothes & shoes) under the arcades for which Bologna is famous. In the square they were setting up for a festival this weekend, there was a stage with lighting & lots of stalls etc going up unfortunately these things spoiled our photos a bit but we did see all the churches, fountains, historic buildings & leaning towers.

Dinner out & a good night's sleep, after we snuck up to the building roof (silly them leaving the door unlocked) for a quick look at the city lights.

Next morning it was a lovely breakfast, being the good girl I am I chose fresh fruit salad, natural yoghurt, brown bread & jam - I honestly drooled over the choice of cakes & pastries but just couldn't bring myself to eat such things for breakfast, now if it had been morning tea time that would be a different thing altogether! We had to be at the railway station by 9:15 so we packed up & headed off straight after breakfast, fortunately the station was only 200 metres away.

On the train, speeding through the countryside Grant thought he would check how fast we were going with the GPS, well it went ballistic, we were only doing 165 kph but he had the GPS set for pedestrian, which we had used for our city walk yesterday & it didn't know how to handle someone who can walk that fast....we laughed ourselves silly!

This part of the trip is inland but the scenery is still lovely, quite flat with mostly broadacre crops or ploughed up paddocks waiting for rain I guess! A change of trains at Milan, this was a very busy & very large station so it was a relief to make it to the train & find our seat in the airconditioning.

It was a lovely surprise to find that our travelling partner was a young lass from the USA, named Toni - can you believe it! She is a seasoned traveller & we chatted most of the way about great places to visit in Europe. The scenery on this part of the trip was spectacular as we passed through the Alps into Switzerland & before we knew it we were in Geneva, Switzerland.



One example of the fountains provided round the city - drinking, watering
animals (in the past I guess), washing clothes too I believe

The weather was a bit damp but we didn't let that stop us, we walked to the Reformation Monument which is a massive sandstone wall full of carvings & engraved script. Then up a few steps & a hill & we were in the old town for a walk round the passed the basilica (where they were filming a movie scene or something) & voila there we were at Lake Geneva. Since the weather was a bit ordinary we decided on an hour long boat trip round the Geneva end of the massive lake (it's 370 metres deep unbelievable!). The water spout fountain was functioning which was great but with a cloudy sky the photos won't be anything special. By the time we finished that it had really started to pour and it was getting late in the afternoon so we headed home to our hotel.

Grant suggested MacDonald's for dinner as we were walking passed & it was too early for most restaurants which don't seem to open until 7pm. NEVER again...it was exorbitantly expensive & the worst I have eaten even though a prawn & avocado wrap sounded nice - but was YUK - the thickshakes were runny, Grant's farmer's salad was tiny, 'the meal' & I use the term loosely, cost over $A50, unbelievably overpriced.

Next morning a lazy start, we had a lovely room & it was hard to drag ourselves away, I could have lived in that room, & got the afternoon bus from Geneva to Annecy in France. Well this was a fabulous trip, two hours of mostly glorious green farm country with a smattering of towns & farmhouses. I am going to take this opportunity to thank our friends Dave & Jean for suggesting a side trip to Annecy, it would have to be the loveliest town in Europe so far (don't want to include the UK here because there are a number of really wonderful places there too).



This canal & triangular building from the 1400's was only 50 metres
from our hotel

Just one of dozens of small piazzas around
the town

It has a medieval centre with cobble stone pedestrian ways, canals, churches, arcades, unique shops, a massive lake with a walkway around it (much further than we can walk in our day here) & more restaurants than we could possibly count then of course there is the actual city, modern & bustling with plenty of high fashion shops, all with that traditional 'french flare'.

We found our accommodation (after helping a couple of Japanese lasses work out the town map at the bus stop & find their hotel) which we entered through a door in the front of the church, talk about squashing things in! Our room was on the third floor, no lift & just spiral staircases, it had a sloping ceiling as it was a loft & in the roof space. Food, I need food, since we had missed both breakfast & lunch my stomach was really letting me know it needed something in it....how do we choose, so many options. We went with a fixed menu that was a reasonable price for three courses & served at a cute family run restaurant in one of the backstreets. The proprietor wanted to practice his English so that was good as my french is pretty rusty (it's only 42 years since my last french language class, you think I would have remembered more than a few words, what is the Australian education system coming to) & Grant can say MERCI & that pulls him up french wise. The food was really nice & good value especially compared to the 'so-so' food we ate in Geneva.

Yummy, love the gelati !

A beautiful day dawned & Grant found the address of the fire station so off he went, I wandered round the shops in the old town, only to find it was market day & several of the streets were packed with farmers selling cheeses, meats, vegetables, flowers, you name it they sold it! Just wondeful, I sampled lots of bits & pieces but bought some soft cheese, salami, olives, tomatoes, bananas & a couple of fresh bagettes. Lunch was enjoyed sitting on a jetty with our feet dangling in the lake water, crystal clear, crisp but not freezing, then disaster struck in our piece of paradise....a ferry went by & sent waves of wake towards us & our jetty which was only a few inches above water level.....the water bubbled up through the boards & washed over the end of the jetty, needless to say we spent the rest of the day with very wet bottoms....thank goodness we saved the cheese & bread! We had a lovely walk along the lake edge, ate sorbet & gelati til it came out our ears. It was just heavenly!

Our lakeside walk, such a glorious day & the views not bad either...

Next morning it was the bus back to Geneva airport, flight to Gatwick, pick up the hire car & drive to Eastbourne to see Kathy & Terry, a delightful couple we met on our Hurtigruten Cruise.